Pages

Monday, November 10, 2014

Plan and Forget

When I first started playing I was introduced to Evemon. Evemon is a great tool. It helps you to manage your accounts. It helps with setting up a skill training queue to see how long it will take. It notifies you when characters are not training. I lovingly loaded Chella up a plan to take her into the future. She would be incredible. It would take a year to get there but it would be great. I promptly didn't follow it. The next several years have been me training from one thing to another while randomly missing things until the last minute and panic training.

I did follow the core skill list Diz built for Sugar. He did not give me an exact path but a general guideline to learn all of these things before I wandered off onto other paths. I bounced around between the items on the list but I learned them all. That meant that I did not have any 'cool' skills for a long time. I was, however, solidly skilled in shield and armor tanking with good agility. It also gave Sugar very strange holes in her skills because she was a very focused combat pilot for small gangs.

When I first started training skills in Eve, I would look through the groups and buy all of the cheap skill books. I'd then load them in and pick up a few levels of each skill. I did not understand the importance of leveling various skills at that point. I had a lot of badly trained abilities and I was quite proud of all of them. In those first days my skill queue would be empty between one skill starting and another but I quickly learned to keep it running most of the time.

I obsessed over skills for the next year as I slowly developed my plan. Chella became a support pilot and Sugar a combat pilot. Skill after skill ticked down with agonizing slowness as Sugar worked towards a Hurricane and Chella a Scimitar. This is back during the end days of Battlecruisers Online and before the T1 cruiser rebalance. If this was current times I'd train in a completely different path with more focus on T1 cruisers. But, this is the past and not current time.

My goal points where set on a battlecruiser to fly into combat and that is what I trained for. I remember when Razor asked in shock that I did not have Interceptor's V. Considering that I'd never even flown an interceptor I did not know why I was bad for not having it to V. This type of thing would derail my training as I constantly sought to train another skill or another level due to a comment or concern. Sometimes it was my own interests. I ran off and learned Assault Frigate V when I fell in love with the Jaguar. It must be remembered that this was a time when seeing frigates was not the most common event for me in the area of low sec that I lived in. I spent much of my PvP time in a Rupture. I hated that Rupture. I was always last and the sigh from some fleet commanders when I tagged along did not do much to endear me to it.

It made gaining new skills exciting and it made the queue move to slowly. However, once I had trained a broad selection of skills and settled into my basic skill training queue's I found that the push and time watching diminished. And then even later, as my game life became a blur of events and things to think and remember, I developed a love for long skills that I didn't have to manage.

My personal wishes for the change in Eve's skill queue was based around the need to help people who wanted to stay in the game, stay in the game. This meant that legal babysitting had to be developed. I was thrilled with the ability to inject PLEX into another character but that was not enough. Now, with a skill queue that can expand for years, we are at a point where legally, a queue can be maintained.

The other side effect is that skill plans will be easier to follow for those who like organization and optimization. It is not quite perfect. You still cannot inject things that you do not have the prerequisites for. Still, being able to layer in weeks worth of skills has been oddly satisfying. I may have to start using Evemon again.

Links

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

EVE Online and the EVE logo are the registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights are reserved worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. EVE Online, the EVE logo, EVE and all associated logos and designs are the intellectual property of CCP hf. All artwork, screenshots, characters, vehicles, storylines, world facts or other recognizable features of the intellectual property relating to these trademarks are likewise the intellectual property of CCP hf. CCP hf. has granted permission to Low Sec Lifestyle to use EVE Online and all associated logos and designs for promotional and information purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not in any way affiliated with, Low Sec Lifestyle. CCP is in no way responsible for the content on or functioning of this website, nor can it be liable for any damage arising from the use of this website.